By: Lauren Hacksley (Tertiary Education Manager, GADRA Education)
Sitting at her desk, Phelela Hulu comes to an important realisation about her upcoming graduation for her Bachelor of Education Honours in Education Leadership and Management: “It’s the reason I went to school.” As the recently appointed manager for the GADRA Education High School programmes, she now facilitates the programmes that assist local students with accessing Rhodes University. Her journey with GADRA Education began in 2014 when she enrolled at the GADRA Matric School to upgrade her results. The motivation was straightforward. She wanted to access Rhodes University.
A successful year at GMS led to acceptance into a BCom at Rhodes in 2015. Her degree choice captures a central characteristic of Phelela’s identity. She chose a BCom, even though she had not taken Commerce subjects at school. The choice was motivated by one thing: the desire for a new challenge, to be taken out of her comfort zone. Within three years, she graduated with a BCom and enough self-awareness to know that the corporate world was not for her. The alternative, a PGCE, was the natural choice.
With her GMS experience fresh in her mind, she chose to put herself on a teaching trajectory so she could emulate the teachers who had motivated her and obtain that qualification while also facing the challenges of being a new mother. After a year of occasional relief teaching at Ntsika in 2020, the GADRA door once again opened for Phelela. She took over teaching a heavy teaching load mid-year, shortly after the untimely passing of her mother. The challenges were immense. Taking over classes from a much-loved teacher required a lot of adapting, and within her personal life, the loss of her mother was the loss of a pillar of strength and her central support system. Again, Phelela chose to turn a challenge into growth, and in 2023, she felt sufficiently in control to start actively seeking a new challenge. The BEdH in Education Leadership and Management felt like the right choice, though at the time she did not know why.
When she crosses the stage on Wednesday afternoon, it is for a qualification that is entirely her own, a qualification selected to celebrate challenges, to explore interests, and to look ahead to her future with no external pressure. Phelela will continue to face life’s challenges head-on. Her new position within GADRA Education enables her to give back to the community that has supported her while also continuing her own journey of self-discovery. As she begins this new stage in her professional life, she has also just begun walking the educational journey of her young daughter, who is in grade one.
Phelela is never one to shy away from a challenge; if life does not give her one (and life has given her plenty), she will find one. Personal growth, she believes, comes through facing challenges. And living is all about growing.